Rhythm – “the rhythm of a poem is built on the sound of words” Scansion – a method of analyzing a poem by marking the pattern of accents in a line of poetry
Accent – the strong syllable or syllables in a word / the part of a word we emphasize with breath and tone
Strong Accent – all words with more than one syllable will have at least one strong accent
Weak Accent – other syllables in a word
Stressed – a term used in place of “strong accent” / the emphasized sound(s) in a word
Unstressed – a term used in place of “weak accent” / the unemphasized sound(s) in a word
Foot – one unit of the rhythmic pattern that makes up the meter
Iamb – one weak and one strong syllable
Iambic Meter – the rhythm based on the iambic foot
Trochee – one strong and one weak syllable
Trochaic Meter – the rhythm based on the trochaic foot
Anapest – two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable
Anapestic Meter – the rhythm based on the anapestic foot
Dactyl – a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables
Dactylic Meter – the rhythm based on the dactylic foot
Spondee – two strong accents together
Pyrrhus – two weak accents together
Caesura – a break in the meter (often punctuated with a period, colon, semicolon, or possibly a comma)
Anacrusis – an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a line that does not affect the overall meter
Meter – the pattern set up by the regular rhythm of words in a poem
Monometer – a line of one (1) foot
Dimeter – a line of two (2) feet
Trimeter – a line of three (3) feet
Tetrameter – a line of four (4) feet
Pentameter – a line with five (5) feet
Hexameter – a line with six (6) feet
Heptameter – a line with seven (7) feet
Octameter – a line with eight (8) feet
Reading Lines of Poetry:
End-Stopped Line – the meaning of a line comes to a definite end
Enjambed Line – the meaning does not end but continues on to the next line
Enjambment – (noun) the running of one line into another line
(Adapted from Charters/Charters, Literature and Its Writers, Compact Second Edition, Chapters 8-11, and A Handbook to Literature, 9th edition.)
Rhythm – “the rhythm of a poem is built on the sound of words”
Scansion – a method of analyzing a poem by marking the pattern of accents in a line of poetry
- Accent – the strong syllable or syllables in a word / the part of a word we emphasize with breath and tone
- Strong Accent – all words with more than one syllable will have at least one strong accent
- Weak Accent – other syllables in a word
- Stressed – a term used in place of “strong accent” / the emphasized sound(s) in a word
- Unstressed – a term used in place of “weak accent” / the unemphasized sound(s) in a word
Foot – one unit of the rhythmic pattern that makes up the meter- Iamb – one weak and one strong syllable
- Iambic Meter – the rhythm based on the iambic foot
- Trochee – one strong and one weak syllable
- Trochaic Meter – the rhythm based on the trochaic foot
- Anapest – two weak syllables followed by a strong syllable
- Anapestic Meter – the rhythm based on the anapestic foot
- Dactyl – a strong syllable followed by two weak syllables
- Dactylic Meter – the rhythm based on the dactylic foot
- Spondee – two strong accents together
- Pyrrhus – two weak accents together
- Caesura – a break in the meter (often punctuated with a period, colon, semicolon, or possibly a comma)
- Anacrusis – an unstressed syllable at the beginning of a line that does not affect the overall meter
Meter – the pattern set up by the regular rhythm of words in a poemReading Lines of Poetry:
(Adapted from Charters/Charters, Literature and Its Writers, Compact Second Edition, Chapters 8-11, and A Handbook to Literature, 9th edition.)